Your Go-To Stamp Collecting Literature?

I'm still very (very) green to the hobby and was hoping you could share your opinion as to which Price Guide you would consider to be the definitive piece of literature or go-to guide to stamp collecting. Thank you.

For U.S. stamps it would the Scott Specialized Catalog of United States Stamps.

Thanks, jogil, I just ordered one from ebay. With shipping I got it for $89. Couldn't find it cheaper elsewhere.

The Scott Specialized Catalog is an excellent resource, probably the best or most comprehensive for US stamps. (I have the 2013 edition; things change slowly enough in the stamp world that a year old copy, at half the cost of a new one, is good enough for me.) However, be careful using it as a "price guide." For all but the rarest or most desirable of stamps or covers, it seems to overstate the "value" by at least a third, if not more. My opinion here is based on having made hundreds of purchases on ebay or Bidstart, and have observed countless more. I have a rule of thumb for bidding on ebay, in which I will peg my high bid at 67% of CV (catalog values). I win most auctions I bid in following this rule of thumb, and at winning bids closer to 50%-55% of CV in most cases.

Also, being new to the hobby, do not think that these CV's represent what your collection might be worth selling to a dealer. CV, or even the lesser values I see on ebay, represent "retail" value. You can only realize that selling yourself. A dealer is only going to offer a fraction of CV, since they have overhead costs of carrying inventory, and expect to make a profit when they resell what they buy from you.

Bottom line: having some idea of the value of a collection is useful, but collect stamps and philatelic material for enjoyments sake, and only secondarily, if at all, as "investment." In fact, again except for the rarest or most desirable items, stamps and covers are not particularly good investments. Most do not hold their value over time, i.e. do not appreciate much in value at all, and certainly not enough to keep pace with inflation.

Basil

Basil - That's excellent advice. I feel I'm realistic with my expectations and agree with you 100%. Only reason I'm interested in literature is to learn what stamps are rarer than others, what I'd like to collect and keep for myself, etc. I never pay attention to $ values since I've found them to be inaccurate. Your percentages are spot on. Thanks

I recently picked up the first 4 volumes of the ACSC Catalogue covering the pre-decimal era. Previously I had the Stanley Gibbons catalogue but wanted to go into more depth for these issues. I use Scott for the remainder of my collection.

Be careful using values to determine rarity, many truly rare stamps aren't very valuable and many valuable stamps aren't rare.

billw2 - Rare stamps aren't valuable? That makes no sense to me. I collect Hot Wheels cars and Coins and with those, the more rare = most valuable, condition is obviously a big factor.

Not to speak for Bill but this one has been covered before, I think you'll find there is more nuances to value than simply a straight supply and demand correlation when it comes to stamps. Many examples can be cited.

Value is determined by the demand. You may have a one of a kind item, but if no one collects it the value is nil.

Case in point: I have many one of a kind covers I created with the release of Scott # 3783 (First Powered Flight Centennial). These are worth no more than the more common FDCs for this issue, maybe even less in some cases. Paint a piece of rock silver, with your initials on it. It is now one of a kind. Put it on ebay. Nobody (in a right state of mind) is going to buy it. "You may have a one of kind item, but if no one collects it the value is nil." Couldn't have said it better myself.

Cpuwizshot,

Supply and demand. I collect real vintage cars, like I've said elsewhere, my 57 Bel Air coupe hardtop is worth a LOT more than my 60 Lincoln Premiere coupe. Thousands of 57 Bel Air hardtops survived, less than 10 Premiere coupes are currently registered in the US.

There's 3 original gum Scott #78c in existence, 1 of which is badly off center. In total less than 50 of those stamps are provn to exist. Compare their value to that of an inverted Jenny.

Dollar value Columbians? Trans Missisippis? Not rare but pricey.

Some of the large banknote I grills are extremely rare, they're all scarce at the least.

So, I'm concluding, stamp collecting is less about how rare a stamp is, but it's more about the subject matter? Neat